The present invention relates to an optical disc apparatus for recording/reproducing information onto/from an optical disc.
An optical disc apparatus is for recording/reproducing information onto/from an optical disc (being about 120 mm in the diameter thereof), such as, a CD (Compact Disc), a DVD (a Digital Versatile Disc) and a BD (Blu-ray Disc) or the like, and is mounted widely, not only onto personal computers, such as, a notebook type, a desk top type, and a tower type, etc, but also onto a home recording/reproducing machine, a game machine, etc. For example, within the notebook type and the desktop type personal computers, there is mainly applied a thin-shaped optical disc apparatus of a tray-type. In the optical disc apparatus of this tray-type, the main parts thereof, such as, a spindle motor and an optical pickup, etc., are mounted on a lower surface of a tray. And, it has a feature that, with the tray, those main parts also project in a front of a housing, when trying to do loading/unloading (or attaching/detaching) of an optical disc therein.
In recent years, accompanying with an increase of the recording/reproducing speed of the optical disc apparatus, the optical disc apparatuses are used at higher rotational speed of with rotating the disc at high speed. In this situation, there is a problem of an increase of noises, such as, a mechanical noise caused due to vibrations of the spindle motor and the respective parts of the apparatus, a fluid noise due to a circling airflow generated with rotation of the disc, etc., for example. The former, the mechanical noise comes to be reduced, gradually, by means of a countermeasure for suppressing the vibration, which are applied on the parts, including the spindle motor, and also contacting portions on that parts, etc. On the other hand, regarding the reduction of the later, i.e., the fluid noise, due to the restrictions on the inner structures and sizes thereof, with the thin-shaped optical disc apparatus, studies and countermeasures thereof are not sufficient so far.
As a technology for reducing the fluid noise within the thin-shaped optical disc apparatus of the tray-type, for example, there is already known that, wherein a cutoff opening(s) is/are formed for allowing an airflow caused by rotation of the disc to flow out under the tray, on either one or both of a flat portion of the tray, facing to the lower surface of the disc, and a wall surface portion disposed to surround an outer periphery of the disc (see the following Patent Document 1).    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent No. 3788888.